Form 5472 is an IRS information return. A US LLC owned by a non-US person uses it to report money moving between the LLC and its owner, or other related parties. If you live outside the US and own a single-member US LLC, it is the one federal filing the IRS expects from you, sent with a one-page pro forma Form 1120. Most owners hear about it late, usually after their first year has already ended.
A US LLC files Form 5472 if it has one owner who is not a US person, and the LLC is taxed as a disregarded entity. That's the default for a single-member LLC: the LLC doesn't pay US federal income tax of its own.
For Form 5472 purposes only, the IRS treats a foreign-owned single-member LLC as a corporation. The instructions call it a "foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entity" and say it is classified as a corporation for the limited purposes of section 6038A, the reporting rule behind Form 5472. It doesn't change how your LLC is taxed. It only means the LLC has to report its dealings with you.
A foreign-owned LLC files Form 5472 every year it has a reportable transaction. In the year you form it, the money you spend to set it up is one, so your first year always needs a filing.
Multi-member LLCs and LLCs taxed as corporations file differently. A multi-member LLC is taxed as a partnership by default and files its own return. An LLC that elected to be taxed as a corporation files a full Form 1120. Both are different filings from the one in this guide, and we don't prepare them. If you're unsure which you have, our guide to single-member vs multi-member LLCs explains the difference.
A reportable transaction on Form 5472 is any money moving in or out between your LLC and a related party. For a single-member LLC, the main related party is you. Other related parties include other companies you own and your relatives.
The IRS lists what a foreign-owned LLC reports in Part V of the form: amounts paid or received in connection with forming, dissolving, acquiring or disposing of the LLC, including contributions to it and distributions from it.
In practice, for a new LLC owned by one person:
A foreign-owned LLC files a separate Form 5472 for each related party it had transactions with. If you're the only one, that's one form. If the LLC also paid a company you own, or lent money to a relative, each of them needs a form of their own.
When an owner comes to us with a year they never filed, the form itself is rarely what went wrong. They didn't file it, and the reason is usually one of three:
Yes. Your LLC's tax year is normally the calendar year. If you form it on December 10, the money you put in to set it up is a reportable transaction in that year, so you owe a Form 5472 by April 15, four months after the LLC was formed.
We tell every late-year customer the same thing. If you can wait, form the LLC on or after January 1, and your first filing moves to the April of the following year. If you can't wait, we file the Form 5472 for your formation year free of charge when you order your LLC with us in December. We make this offer every year.
No, if you can avoid it. Every LLC bill you pay from a personal card or personal bank account is a transaction between you and the LLC, and it has to go on the form. That includes the state fee and the registered agent fee if you paid them yourself. The more of these transactions there are, the more the filing costs to prepare. Once your business bank account is open, use it for everything the LLC pays for.
No. Form 5472 is a federal IRS filing, and your annual report is a state filing. Owners often mix up their federal filing with their state filings. They are different obligations, sent to different agencies, on different dates. Filing one doesn't cover the other.
Paying Wyoming or Delaware doesn't tell the IRS anything, and filing with the IRS doesn't keep your LLC in good standing with the state. Our annual compliance checklist lists everything your LLC files each year.
(State fees are set by each Secretary of State. Check the current amount on the state's own website before filing.)
A foreign-owned LLC sends two documents together: a pro forma Form 1120 and Form 5472.
The pro forma Form 1120 is a cover sheet, not a tax return. Your LLC doesn't owe corporate tax, and you don't fill in income or deductions. The IRS instructions say the only information required is the LLC's name and address and items B and E on the first page, and you write "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" across the top.
Form 5472 is the information return itself. It identifies the LLC, its foreign owner and the related party, and reports the transactions between them. Transactions that don't fit the standard categories are described on an attached statement.
The LLC needs an EIN (Employer Identification Number) to file Form 5472. If you don't have one yet, StartFleet's Express EIN service gets it in 10 to 12 business days. As the owner, you don't need an ITIN or Social Security number: the form takes a reference ID or your foreign tax ID instead, and the IRS asks you to use the same reference ID every year.
We're not going to walk through the form line by line here. What goes on each line depends on your own transactions, and a filing copied from someone else's example can leave out what applies to you. The IRS treats a substantially incomplete form the same as not filing at all.
Form 5472 is due on April 15 for a calendar-year LLC, because Form 5472 is due with the Form 1120. If April 15 falls on a weekend or US public holiday, it moves to the next business day.
You can extend it to October 15 with Form 7004, filed by the original April 15 deadline. Write "Foreign-owned U.S. DE" across the top of the 7004 and send it to the same fax number or address as the 5472, not the address in the Form 7004 instructions.
Delaware LLC owners face two bills close together: Form 5472 in April and the $400 Delaware LLC tax on June 1. Filing Form 7004 moves the Form 5472 to October, so the two don't land in the same few weeks.
A foreign-owned LLC can't e-file Form 5472. The IRS instructions say a foreign-owned disregarded entity cannot file Form 5472 electronically. You have two options:
Don't use the mailing address in the Form 1120 instructions. It's the wrong office for this filing.
The IRS sends no confirmation for Form 5472. There's no confirmation and no receipt. We fax every filing, and the only proof of filing is the fax transmission report showing the pages went through successfully and on time. Keep that report with your copy of the filing.
The IRS penalty is $25,000 for each Form 5472 that isn't filed when due and in the manner the IRS prescribes. Not keeping the required records triggers the same penalty, and filing a substantially incomplete form counts as not filing.
If the form still isn't filed more than 90 days after the IRS sends a notice, an additional $25,000 applies for each 30-day period, or part of one, for each related party.
If you've missed a year of Form 5472, file it as soon as you can. Firms that handle these cases recommend filing the late form with a reasonable-cause statement explaining why it was late, and the longer you wait, the harder that case is to make. A late filing can still draw a penalty notice, so if you've already received one, speak to a tax professional before you do anything else.
Keep a copy of every Form 5472 and pro forma 1120 you file, with the fax transmission report or proof of mailing. You'll need last year's filing to prepare next year's: the reference ID, the owner details and the related parties carry over. The IRS also requires the LLC to keep records that support the filing, for as long as they may matter.
You send us your LLC's transactions for the year. We prepare the pro forma 1120 and every Form 5472 it needs, fax them to the IRS before the deadline, and send you the fax transmission report as your proof of filing. Your part is telling us what money moved.
Form 5472 filing is also included in our Business plan. See full pricing or order your Form 5472 filing.
Yes. Nothing requires you to use a preparer, and there's no IRS filing fee. You can't e-file it, though: it has to be faxed or mailed with the pro forma 1120.
Our filing starts at $129, and around 80% of our customers pay $299 (our estimate). The price depends on how many transactions you had with the LLC and how many related parties need a form. See pricing.
For a single-member LLC that doesn't owe US federal income tax, the filing is an information return, and a filing service can prepare it. If your LLC has US-source income that may be taxable, more than one owner, or a corporate tax election, use a CPA who works with non-resident clients.
Yes, for any year with a reportable transaction. Income has nothing to do with it. If you paid the state fee, the registered agent or any LLC bill yourself, or moved money in or out, that year has a reportable transaction.
File the missing year as soon as you can, with a statement explaining why it was late. If the IRS has already sent you a penalty notice, speak to a tax professional first.
No. Under FinCEN's final rule of August 11, 2026, companies formed in the US are exempt from beneficial ownership reporting. Form 5472 is a separate IRS filing and still applies.
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. StartFleet is not a law firm or a CPA firm. Your US and home-country tax position depends on where you live and what your business does, so if your situation goes beyond a single-member LLC with no US tax to pay, speak to a CPA or tax professional who works with non-residents.
StartFleet Team shares insights and guides on U.S. business, company formation, EINs, taxes, and banking for non-U.S. founders. Our guides are written by the team that handles these filings every day, so you get advice from people who do this work.
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